Sustainable Transportation Systems: Plan, Design, Build, Manage, and Maintain

Florida's Road Rangers provide free highway assistance services during incidents on Florida's roadways to reduce delay and improve safety for the motoring public and responders. This paper presents the research results from a recent completed study to describe and quantify the benefits derived from the Road Ranger program. The Freeway Service Patrol Evaluation (FSPE) model, developed by the University of California at Berkley, was used to quantify the benefit-cost (B/C) ratio using a variety data from Florida SunGuide database for the year 2010. The benefits (delay and fuel saving) of the Road Ranger program were about $135.3 million in total, and the costs (contract) were about $19.9 million. Overall, the program achieved a B/C ratio of 6.78 in 2010. This paper will be informative for any agency looking to identify opportunities to improve the allocation of available funding for similar incident response programs.

In 1997, the City of San Leandro adopted the Bikeway Plan of the Circulation Element of the City's General Plan which provided policies and programs and guided the planning and development of bikeways throughout the city. In 2004, a pedestrian component was added to address both bicycle and pedestrian issues in a similar and consistent fashion and to allow the City to be more competitive in obtaining grant funding. To reflect demographic changes and new policies and design standards for bicyclists and pedestrians, this document was updated in 2010. The 2010 Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan Update (Master Plan) is the official policy document guiding the development of facilities to enhance bicycling and walking as additional and appropriate transportation choices for residents. The Master Plan included the guidance of a City Council-appointed Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC). The BPAC was composed of 13 members and three alternates. BPAC members, who represented both bicycle and pedestrian interests, were selected from each of the City's Council districts. The BPAC met five times over nine months and was effective in providing valuable insight into the Master Plan. The Master Plan was adopted by the City Council in February 2011. The Master Plan Update includes the following chapters: Introduction; Goals and Policies; Bicycle Network; Pedestrian Network; Safety, Education and Enforcement; and Implementation. A companion document, The Bicycle and Pedestrian Design Guidelines, was also developed with the guidance of the BPAC. It provides details that assist with the design of bicycle and pedestrian facilities recommended for the City of San Leandro.

This article analyzed the issue over two kinds of transportation development strategy in recent days. Illustrated the comprehensive background and faced challenges. Consequently, to come up with five overall development strategies, which are "Coordinated development of various modes of transport," "Coordinated development of urban and rural regional transportation," "Overall coordination of traditional freight forwarding and logistics development," "Overall coordination of transportation and the development of resources and the environment," and "Overall coordination of transportation construction and development services." The key for transportation development could be conclude in five aspects, which are "Traffic structure Optimization and in service capabilities improvement," "Modern passenger transport development and of service quality improvement," "Traditional freight forwarding transformation and modern logistics development," "Development mode Changing and of green traffic building," and "Public administration Strengthen and services improvement."

It's worthwhile to make an intensive study as to how to choose the programming project which can meet the requirements of traffic sustainable development, also can achieve harmonious development of social economy, resources and environment and traffic infrastructure construction. In this paper, the comprehensive evaluation model of traffic infrastructure planning is formed based on rough set. Firstly the indexes system regarding to attributes of technology, economy, environment and society is formed. Then reserving the classification ability, the attributes and their weights are determined by reduction and significance computation according to rough set theory, so the indexes system is reduced efficiently, the subjectivity in weight assignment is also eliminated and therefore the performance of programming projects is reflected more exactly and objectively. The result of the comprehensive evaluation of one logistics park site selection scheme shows this method is scientific, effective and feasible.

Shanghai is in the process of urban redevelopment. In order to reform old downtown and improve living conditions, poor houses are demolished and the government relocates the residents. Usually they are relocated in large scale residential areas in the periphery of Shanghai. Jinhexincheng is one of them. Data is collected through a random sampling survey. The study is conducted with two main social groups: workers (representing commuters) and the elderly (representing non-commuters). Results show that a large proportion of workers commute across districts while the elderly often travel inside the district. The logistic regression model is suggesting the most important factor that causes cross-district commuting is education. Mode choice and morning departure time are different between the workers and the aged. Compared to the world average commuting time (40 minutes), Jinhexincheng's commuting time is quite long. The results suggest that transportation planning must consider travel needs of different social groups.

The concept of ecological civilization as a guide for building eco-ports is an inevitable trend in the development of port group, but there is still a lack of evaluation system for eco-port group. To determine the ecological level of development of the port group and found problems in the development, this paper established the of evaluation index system. Through the analytic network process (ANP), selecting Liaoning eco-port group as an example to establish evaluation system of Liaoning eco-port group of, studying systemic and comprehensive on evaluation of the Liaoning province eco-port group, and proposing some corresponding suggestion for the future development of the eco-port group based on the results of Liaoning province. The example shows that, the eco-port group's assessment system Based on ANP is feasible and effective, and this paper can provide reference for relevant departments to formulate standards of the evaluation system.

The upgrading of port function produces a profound and lasting effect on the progress of a port city's spatial structure. To analyze the port city spatial structure evolution mechanism, this paper addresses the process of urban spatial structure evolution under the influence of port function upgrading. Dalian is the study object, and the study uses the technology of remote sensing analysis and geographic information systems to extract geographic information about urban land utilization, combined with the theory of fractal and spatial gravity center, and thus analyzes the law of port city spatial evolution. On the foundation of the law proposed, the port city spatial structure evolution mechanism model is established with overall consideration of both mechanism factors from industry and society implicated during the port function upgrading process. Results show that the mechanism study could reveal internal agents of port city spatial structure evolution and provide theoretical basis and decision-making support for the improvement of the port city spatial structure evolution's rationality, so as to achieve port cities' sustainable development.

At present, the main business districts of Chongqing city are facing with the serious challenge of the problem of traffic congestion, to solve the problem of traffic congestion of Chongqing city has become the key of guarantee Chongqing's sustainable social and economic development, and of improve the quality of life . Chongqing is a mountain city and the traffic problem is a complicated system problem. To basically solve the problem of traffic congestion, we must use science of traffic planning method to establish the near future and the long-term strategy, these methods and strategies must according to certain procedures in Chongqing city integrated traffic planning framework on. First, author surveyed of Chongqing urban current traffic system, found out the cause of the traffic congestion, and made an analysis on the data. Secondly, in accordance with the above results, author used scientific methods, such as city road system optimization, traffic organization planning, traffic control, transportation structure optimization and the traffic system management to formulate the strategy to solve the problem. Finally, in accordance with the above strategy, author formulated a traffic planning system to solve the problem of traffic congestion in Chongqing urban area. According to the analysis, this traffic planning system can effectively solve the problem of traffic congestion of Chongqing, and it also laid a solid foundation of Chongqing's sustainable development of social, economy and transportation.

Compared with traditional mono-central cities, clustered cities have more advantages in adapting to rapidly development of big cities, while they can effectively guide the healthy development of transport system. Therefore, this layout mode has more and more use to the urban planning. However, the interface between the groups is far from satisfactory. In order to achieve an effective interface between groups, to Chongqing, for example, now should analyze the spatial development trends in Chongqing and the situation of implementation of public transport-oriented development (TOD). For the current major traffic problems caused by the poor interface between the groups in Chongqing . Design to the planning process whose hub layout planning as the core. Described in the context of rapid urbanization in China the main content of a "public transport-led" TOD planning model, and survey content includes demand forecasting, program design, program evaluation and program implementation support system. Study result shows that based on TOD mode of public transport planning approach will be ideal planning model to support an effective interface between the city groups.

Based on the applying of congestion cost assessment methodologies, congestion cost calculation process was analyzed and construction of calculation models was deduced. According to the database of city traffic running status and Statistic Yearbook 2010 in Beijing, the social cost of Traffic Congestion was calculated. The result shows that Traffic Congestion costs about 58 billion Yuan RMB (4.22% of GDP) in Beijing in 2010, including time delay cost, extra oil combustion, traffic accident direct economic loss, vehicle loss cost, environment pollutants. The proportion of GDP is higher than the same scale cities, such as New York, London and St. Paul. The most congestion cost comes from trips by car and the time delay cost is the mainly and directly social cost. For saving of vehicle congestion, this paper suggests that government of Beijing should optimize city function construction around the urban railway station to scatter the function in central metropolitan area, and provide more hospital, school and job in nearby area of new railway station to reduce long distance trip demand.

For the last decade, China's civil aviation sector has undergone rapid transformation and unprecedented growth. Between 2005 and 2010, the average annual growth of air passengers was more than 13 percent per year. In 2010, total air passengers almost doubled that of 2005, reaching 609 million¹ (CAAC, 2007 and 2011). The number of airports has increased from 142 to 190 for the same period. The country has a commercial airline fleet of 2,600 aircraft and is expected to order more than 2,000 aircraft over the next five years, resulting in a fleet of more than 4,500 aircraft by the end of 2015 (CAPA, 2011). According to Chinese aviation officials, 56 new airports are expected to be built in the next five years (Perrett, 2011). China's goal is to build 240 airports to attain 1.5 hour drive range to an airport for more than 80 percent of the national county-level administrative units and to provide an efficient access to air services for more than 82 percent of the China's population (CCAR, 2009). However, China's airport industry still faces tremendous challenges in fulfilling its modernization program. These challenges range from imbalanced airport development between large hub airports and underdeveloped regional airports, fierce competition from other modes of transportation such as high-speed rail and new freeways (Liu, 2009), and how to maximize airport infrastucture throughput for individual new airports to meet China's long-term air travel demand. This paper examines the issues of China's latest air traffic growth and the massive ongoing new airport building program. The focus is to analyze how China could maximize its new airport throughput capacity with respect to new runway configuation designs in order to pursue a modernized and well-balanced airport expansion system nationwide toward its strategic and long-term aviation growth.

As part of the effort to develop an economic analysis methodology for evaluating highway projects, the commonly utilized software packages for highway life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) were examined and evaluated. The software packages include MicroBENCOST, California Life-Cycle Benefit/Cost Analysis Model (Cal-B/C), and the Redbook Wizard. Through this study, the methodologies applied by these packages were examined. The similarities and differences among the methodologies were identified and compared. Cost and benefit data from real highway projects were applied using the software packages to evaluate and compare the economic analysis results. It was found that even though the general frameworks of economic analyses are similar in these packages, there exist many differences in the specific processes and parameter values. This paper presents the results of the comparisons and evaluations. The evaluation procedures are illustrated. The similarities and differences of the methods are outlined. The impact of the differences on the results of highway economic analysis is discussed. It is believed that the results of this study will be helpful for highway engineers and planners to understand the capacities and limitations of the software packages.

This study aims at analyzing the coordination between comprehensive transportation and social development at the regional level in China. Firstly the country (Hongkong, Macao, Taiwan are not included) is zoned into 9 regions according to its administrative partitions. Then the main indexes (operational index &infrastructure development index) for evaluating comprehensive transportation were selected and analyzed using factor analysis and principal component analysis methods. Regional comprehensive transportation systems were evaluated by using these indexes, and obvious disparities among different regional systems were found. The coordination of the comprehensive transport systems and social development of each region was analyzed, using the results of evaluation and HDI (Human Development Index). The results showed that the vulnerable relationship exists between the two. Furthermore, the paper proposed some advices for future development.

Tunnel road crashes continue to cause significant human trauma and unacceptable economy cost. To ensure providing safe and quality services to the public, a key component reclines in a well tunnel road safety plans. This paper will outline the past data of traffic accident in the tunnel area as well as analyses their main causes. In view of the factors that contributed to the high accident rate, it will discuss several implemented remedial measures so as to generate and sustain road safety awareness within the tunnel area, both now and into the future. Finally, this paper will examine whether these measures are success or not, and make suggestion to enhance tunnel road safety improvement.

This study aims to discuss the relation between city development and transportation system. A case study of Taichung City will describe the development progress and future plan, and then analyze the traffic demand of user. To consider sustainable development of Taichung city, this study will draft the public transportation planning of intercity and urban area to provide high quality public transportation service in new development stage.

Car-parking has always been an unresolved issue in most municipal cities in China. Despite efforts by officials of the relevant government departments to put forth new policies and launch various solution proposals from time to time; followed by aggressive actions in the implementation of improvement action plans, their work seldom yield tangible/visible outcome, and the problem remains. This paper aims to examine what has gone wrong in the government policies and actions, and to make suggestions to resolve the long-standing entangled issues of car-parking in municipal cities in China.

All types of construction vehicle fleets can benefit from fuel use and emissions inventory evaluation, including publicly-owned fleets that are used for infrastructure construction and maintenance. Fleet managers can use these types of inventories for minimizing the equipment's contribution to air pollution and climate change. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the current status of the nonroad diesel construction equipment fleet for the City of Stillwater, Oklahoma by developing and analyzing a fuel use and emissions inventory. This inventory evaluates equipment attributes such as equipment type, engine size, engine age, and pollutant regulations; equipment usage in terms of total hours of operation and average annual use; fuel use in terms of total fuel consumed over the life of the equipment and average annual fuel use; and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in terms of total CO₂ emitted over the life of the equipment and average annual emissions. Results indicate that backhoes have the greatest energy and environmental footprint of any equipment type in the fleet. Furthermore, approximately 20% of the fleet is over 20 years old and almost 75% of the fleet is either unregulated or meets only the minimum standard of nonroad diesel engine emissions standards. It is anticipated that this paper can serve as a case study that can be used by managers of publicly-owned fleets to address their specific concerns related to energy consumption and emissions.

Not only does freight transportation use a large percentage of America's resources but also contributes significantly to its share of carbon emissions and affects the safety of the transportation system and all its users. These problems are expected to increase as the volume of freight transportation is already reaching the limits of the transportation infrastructure's capacity while demand continues to increase. The primary objective of this research was to compile a list of technologies and practices that should be included in the sustainable freight transportation frameworks of government agencies and commercial fleets to reduce their carbon footprint and increase their safety by providing recommendations on promising legislation, research, technology, and practices. Data was gathered through a literature review of available materials and a survey of the state Departments of Transportation. The success of this research project provides the needed knowledge for the development of a sustainable freight transportation framework.

To elucidate the mechanism of river bed's self-adjustment under given boundary and amount of water and sediment, the principle and formula of minimum rate of available energy dissipation were put forward in the river regulation projects according to the theory of entropy and energy dissipation about dynamic equilibrium stability of irreversible process in fluvial river. The formula is applied to the river regulation of Han River in the middle of China for predicting its regulated parameters. The comparisons between the computed and measured navigable depths and width show that the formula is effective. The result of the present work implied that the theory used in the regulation projects can provide engineers the needed theoretical basis for river morphology and river engineering studies.

Low carbon management is an important issue to cities around the world today. Various research sects discuss about the way to reduce urban heat island effect and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide and others. In transportation and land use, transit-oriented development (TOD) that increase the ratio of taking public transports and the benefits of increased city tightness are considered capable to improve the greenhouse effect and the establish low-carbon development urban structure. Whereby, the impact to urban cities by transportation and land use when facing climate changes is adopt in this research to propose the positive and negative benefits to the impacted objects by applying 5D models of land-use planning (Density, Diversity, Distance, Destination and Design). The relations between positive and negative benefits due to climate changes and 5D planning methods are further discussed. Finally, the paper focused on the part of negative effect and proposed some possible adjustments and ways to deal with climate change for a future reference for the city government's policy formulation establishing in transportation integration development strategy.

The objectives of this research are to (1) investigate the fuel consumption characteristics of bus operations in bus lanes and on regular city streets; (2) identify probable causes of inefficiency, and (3) identify probable improvements. Fuel consumption data were collected by using an On-board Emissions Measurement System (OEM) on a bus while the bus is in service. Study results show that a bus in an exclusive bus lane (1) is more energy-efficient when operating in mid-blocks due to reduced friction from other road traffic; and (2) has high percent of idling time due to station and intersection delay. Improvements for enhancing both energy and operational efficiency may include redesign of traffic signaling, renovation of bus station design/operations, and eco-driving training for bus drivers. Policies for promoting use of energy-efficient bus fleet, especially at idling and acceleration/deceleration, would also be helpful in fuel savings in city street operations.

This research came out of a 5-year research project for enhancing the capabilities of the planning model in environmental analysis. A Time-Based Model (TBM) is developed to project fuel consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under various traffic conditions for various highway classes. It is based on real-world measurements by using a certified on-board emissions measurement (OEM) system, and a global positioning system (GPS) for deriving vehicular operations characteristics, such as speed, acceleration, deceleration, etc. The first three years of the research was focused on building a model for passenger cars, and the following two years dedicated to intercity and city buses. This paper describes the research findings on buses, including the experiment design, model-building and validation. With the bus module and passenger-car module integrated into the planning model, the energy and GHG effects of transportation demand management policies, such as the provision of high speed rail, bus lanes, and preferential tolling operations, etc. may be easily investigated.

A Sustainable multi-user multi-criteria transportation network equilibrium model considering emission effects is proposed, under the hypothesis that there are many different types of users in the network and each type of users has their own emission preferences. The model explicitly introduces three criteria in the generalized costs rather than one single criterion to describe uses' travel behavior in the transportation network, thus forming a multi-criteria model. These three criteria are travel time, travel cost and emission. A finite-dimensional variational inequality problem is used to describe the sustainable multi-user multi-criteria transportation network equilibrium model. Then a modified projection method is used as an effective algorithm to solve the variational inequality problem. At last a simple illustration network is used to prove the correctness and feasibility of the model.

With the increasing concerns on timely arrival, travel time variability, which leads to the uncertainty of arrival time, becomes more important for high-speed rail passengers. This paper mainly focuses on how travel time variability impacts on the transfer mode selection of high-speed rail passengers. The variables that have significant effects on the transfer mode selection were determined, and the transfer mode selection model was presented based on the travel time variability. A stated preference experiment was conducted to collect the high-speed rail passengers' personal properties, transfer time, transfer cost, and their expected transfer modes. Then the model was calibrated with the data collected and the impacts of travel time variability on transfer mode selection were discussed. The results showed that the travel time variability of taxi has the greatest impact on high-speed rail passengers' transfer mode selection. The model proposed can be used for the transfer mode sharing forecasting and provide theoretical basis for the optimization of traffic transfer system.

The $2 billion Miami Intermodal Center (MIC) project is the most advanced and forward-looking "all-in-one" airport intermodal center in the U.S. It has four major components: 1) the Rental Car Center (RCC) opened for business on July 13, 2010; 2) the Miami International Airport (MIA) Mover opened to the public on September 9, 2011; 3) the Metrorail Airport Link is scheduled to open in April 2012; and 4) the Miami Central Station (MCS) is scheduled to be completed by September 2013. The Tri-Rail connection at MCS allows MIA to serve as the convenient international get-away airport of choice for the entire South Florida, from Palm Beach to the north to the Ft. Lauderdale in the middle, thus enlarge the service radius of MIA from 30 miles to 70 miles. The MIC enables MIA to continue grow without worrying about the ever-worsening ground access problems other airports have to face and deal with.

The one-runway Taipei Songshan Airport is located near the center of Taipei city and was the only international airport in Taiwan prior to February 26, 1979. The airport lost most of the traffic when international flights moved to the new Taoyuan International Airport after 1979. Regular cross-strait charter flights to mainland China started on July 4, 2008, with Songshan receiving the majority of flights. On July 4, 2009, a driverless medium-capacity transit (MCT) linking Taipei Songshan Airport with Taipei rapid transit system network (total system daily ridership of 1.56 million) was opened. The improved accessibility makes the airport more attractive to passengers. The smaller size of the MCT vehicles makes it difficult for airport passengers with luggage to get in and out during the rush hours when the system is already at capacity. The seating arrangement of the MCT vehicles further complicates the situation and improvements in new vehicle design should be considered to alleviate this problem.

Bus stops represent a key bottleneck that supply loading area for buses to service the passengers, this paper focus on the relationship between bus stop accumulative capacity and parking demand, and provides analytical methodology to measure the probability that bus stop accumulative capacity meet parking demand, which is defined as parking capacity reliability in this paper. Bus arrivals and departs at a multi-routes bus stop is considered as the birth and death process, In view of co-ordination of supply and demand, we establish the parking capacity reliability model for multi-routes bus stop with multi-parking spaces, and based on the sensitivity analysis of parameters, this paper further discuss how the available parking space, average parking time as well as amount of bus lines impact on bus stop parking capacity reliability, aiming at providing essential reference for bus stop design and optimization. Finally, the model is applied to evaluate the operational situation of an actual bus stop in Chongqing, China, and methods for improvement are put forward based on the analysis.

By analyzing some slow traffic ways in some domestic and international cities, this paper proposes a combination mode of slow traffic ways which is suitable for Chongqing, a typical mountain city. The combination mode is composed of personal rapid transit system, Crossing-river cableway, pedestrian access and overhead pedestrian trails, which are corresponding to the pedestrian corridor, pedestrian street and pedestrian unit, with the consideration of interface between them. This model can solve the problem which bicycles are inappropriate for Chongqing people fundamentally, and make a high efficiency, low power consumption slow traffic patterns.

This paper provides a comparison of planning, implementation, and operation on bus rapid transit (BRT) in four Chinese cities with significantly different populations and city scales, namely Beijing, Changzhou, Xiamen and Jinan. In Beijing, the Nanzhongzhou Line is the first operational BRT system with full functions in China since late 2006. In early year of 2008, BRT systems in Changzhou, Xiamen and Jinan start their commercial operation. This paper conducts an overview on planning and design process, service performance and capital investments of each system. Nevertheless, many features have been applied and implemented differently in these four BRT systems, such as bus lane allocation, station design, ticketing and pricing schemes, financial and institutional arrangement and integration to other transportation systems. The paper concludes by providing recommendations for planners, engineers and decision makers in implementation of BRT systems in various city environments.

With the rapid progress of our country's urbanization and the construction of transportation, the problem of trip becomes the key to the transportation planning. We step into a period which emphasizes the structural adjustment of transportation. The focus of transportation's construction transfers from highway to railway. In view of this, this paper organized a large-scale investigation in order to explore the passengers' travel behaviors. The investigations were held in Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing, Hefei and Kunshan cities which successfully ran the high speed trains. The paper indicates that travel behaviors including the purpose of trip, the source of charge for trip, etc. are related to the frequency and distance of trip. Furthermore according to these behaviors, this paper will summarize some trends which is helpful to the construction of railway especially the stations of high speed railway.

Explicit performance models of a transit system are often very useful for system design, optimization, alternative comparison, and gaining insights into relevant system relations. In this paper, a performance metamodel has been developed for many-to-many dial-a-ride service, in which flexible routes and schedules are provided and service quality is guaranteed by time constraints. The model predicts minimum vehicle fleet size requirements. A simulation-based response surface methodology is used to model the functional relation between performance and contributing factors through experiments and statistical analysis. A detailed vehicle routing and scheduling algorithm and passenger time constraints, which are oversimplified or omitted in most other analytical approaches, are incorporated in the simulation experiments from whose results our model is statistically estimated. A face-centered central composite design is used to determine the experiment design points. The metamodel is validated using an additional set of randomly generated data. The resulting model is relatively simple in structure, inexpensive to use and fairly robust.

This paper outlines the past, current and future development of intercity train service between major cities in Mainland China (including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou) and Hong Kong. It also describes the role of intercity train service in fostering the social and economic development of Hong Kong and Mainland China, particularly Guangdong province. The cross-boundary passenger markets and profiles are analyzed, followed by an elaboration of major business initiatives to address the identified market and passenger needs. Finally, in view of the rapid development of high speed rail network in Mainland China, it looks into the challenges and opportunities to the existing intercity train service.

With the increasing urbanization and additional traffic it brought, the urban congestion, together with traffic accident and air pollution problems it created, has seriously confronted the society as a whole. Applying intelligent transportation system (ITS) tools to solve these problems in Chongqing are presented in this paper. The ITS is also perceived as the sustainable development tool to address this ever worsening urban traffic problems. The proposed Chongqing ITS Development Plan, which covers 11 domains and 52 subsystem constructions, are discussed in this paper.

While pedestrian related incidents at intersections are not so popular in developed countries, there are always potential conflicts between pedestrians and right-turn motor vehicles. Other potential conflicts include those between right-turn vehicles and stopped through movement vehicles encroaching crosswalks. All these are potential threats to pedestrians, and affect their comfort and safety. The relationships between potential conflicts and the causing factors are very complicated and nonlinear, which can hardly be depicted by simply models. In this paper, the intelligent fuzzy table look-up scheme is employed to model such relationships. The constructed fuzzy system is based on the rule base from observed data, which is intelligent and very helpful for field engineers to quickly screen pedestrian related potential conflicts. A case study in Houston, TX, USA illustrates the modeling procedure, and shows the model validations. With more surveillance data collected, the rule base and fuzzy system could be even better improved.

Transportation communities have being developing a variety of Geographic Information System (GIS) roadway datasets. Although many of those datasets are relatively comprehensive and flexible, complex and novel transportation problems with data needs beyond any single existing dataset continue to emerge. In many cases, extracting necessary data elements from multiple datasets and accurately integrating them into a single roadway network becomes a cost-effective solution. This research developed two approaches that can be used for the conflation of data from multiple roadway datasets. One of the approaches was further demonstrated in a case study where it was used to match the Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) data and a private-sector roadway dataset for the contiguous United States.

This research focuses on developing a scientific methodology to evaluate integrated service planning for bus and metro services in Beijing. One of the five newly built metro lines opened in Beijing in 2010, the Daxing Line, was selected as a demonstration metro corridor for this methodology. A detailed public transport passenger trip matrix is developed using data from the Beijing public transport IC card data. Building on this data, different bus service patterns were evaluated using a pivot point demand model and PT model. In the final section of the paper, the schemes are evaluated using a set of 6 weighted indicators to decide on an optimal outcome. The bulk of the recommended service planning adjustments recommended by the study are currently being implemented in the corridor. The study concludes that the proposed approach is practical and can provide meaningful input to service planning in multi modal corridors in Chinese cities. Given the rapidly expanding metro networks in many Chinese cities, there is a large potential for replication of the approach described in the paper.

Increasing congestion in the urban highway system, combined with limited funds for new construction has lead to new managed lane strategies designed to provide improved level of service at a lower cost. One of the most popular strategies for managed lanes is dynamic tolling of single-occupant vehicles combined with preferential treatment of high-occupancy vehicles, known as High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes. In order to evaluate these types of strategies, dynamic toll modeling is used to model the relationship of toll demand and toll pricing within different time periods, or more specifically, at different levels of congestion. In this paper, an assignment-based toll choice routine is designed to estimate toll demand within the context of a traditional 4-step travel demand model. This approach uses a dynamic toll demand estimation embedded within an equilibrium highway assignment, assuming the toll choice is a path choice rather than a mode choice. In application, an iterative procedure was employed, involving a modification of the assignment routines for each hour. In each iteration, the toll is adjusted according to the level of service, while the likelihood of a traveler choosing a toll path and ultimately the toll demand is estimated based on the marginal cost saving between toll path and non-toll path. The results of this routine are toll and non-toll trip tables, with associated toll values. A case study is shown to explain how this routine is applied to a toll study where toll and toll demand vary by level of service on toll segments.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the current position of radio taxis in the urban transport sector in Algeria, its operation, its relevance and its limitations. The methodology adopted is mainly based on questionnaires to know the viewpoints of drivers and users of radio taxis as regards this new form of urban transportation in the city of Batna. The work was conducted from May to July 2011. The results obtained showed that the service offered by taxis is confused with the one of the radio taxi because of their mode of operation which is based on the free spins rather than the use the phone. In this context, strengthening the role of radio taxis requires the launching of sensibilizing campaigns to raise awareness and information to promote the benefits of radio taxis on the one hand and the improvement of conditions in which they activate on the other hand.

In this paper, through designing object such as a ball, coconut and bricks, and the vehicle front windshield glass collision experiment, data of front windshield glass rupture area and the collision object quality, speed is collected. The regression function of rupture area and speed, quality relations is given. The actual traffic accident case is used to validate the function reliability. The paper will provide a new method for vehicle speed determination in traffic accident, which has very important reference significance.

Currently, most agencies in the United States retime their traffic signal systems either every 2-4 years or based on complaints received. With limited budget and resources, it becomes essential for agencies to retime and maintain their traffic signal systems cost-effectively to maximize the benefits. To achieve this goal, this paper reviewed traffic signal retiming practices, and investigated the impact of signal timing degradation on traffic signal system performance. The impacts of signal timing degradations on the system performance for various growth rates were intensively simulated at three selected corridors. It was found that the elements of average traffic volume per hour per lane and the growth rate of traffic volume on a main corridor can be used to effectively estimate the signal timing degradation. This paper offers a simple and practical guideline to determine when to retime and maintain a traffic signal system.

The use of flashing yellow arrow (FYA) displays for protectedpermitted left turn (PPTL) operations has been increasing in recent years. With its inclusion in the MUTCD, more traffic agencies will likely adopt FYA for PPTL operations in the future. The intent of FYA is to replace traditional green ball displays to make drivers more cautious when making permissive left turns. In this case study, a before-and-after study of an FYA deployment was performed. The study used gap acceptance as a short-term safety measure to evaluate the FYA deployment under different traffic conditions. It was found that under similar low to moderate traffic conditions, by implementing FYA, most drivers accepted longer gaps to make their permissive left turns, hence improving the safety. No noticeable benefits from FYA were found under heavy opposing traffic conditions when available gaps were short. Opposing traffic volumes also have a significant impact on gap acceptance behaviors.

With the advances and development in technology, transportation becomes one of the centers of life, and urban area control is one of its important parts. However, the increase of vehicles inevitable creates the phenomenon of road congestion, especially at the intersection. Intersection signal time optimization can effectively reduce traffic delays, improve the intersection's traffic capacity and is an important measure to improve the traffic condition. This paper proposes a fuzzy neural network traffic signal control method based on line length of cars in waiting. First, the method initial coordinates the intersection signal time according to the traffic status information. Then, with fuzzy control and artificial neural network, the traffic signal is adjusted to achieve the optimization of the whole system. Simulation results show that, compared with the general time-set control, this method can get superior results.

This paper conducts a thorough study on the carpool characteristics in Taiwan. The subjects were 9,924 registered members and 4,176 posted routes retrieved from the nation's largest carpool website. A majority of the members were 25- to 45 year-old males in northern Taiwan. The regular routes were primarily short working trips within 60 minutes and 30 kilometers. The one-time routes presented dual characteristics of short business trips on weekdays and long homecoming trips on Friday and Saturday. Nearly three quarters of the members were not route posters but searchers. Over 73% of the carpool members and route posters were private mode users, indicating that one carpool match would most likely combine two car/motorcycle trips instead of reducing transit rides. Carpool can effectively lessen on-road traffic and is concluded not to compete with but complement public transit. The carpool movement requires sustainable momentum and an integrated program with full policy support.

Truck-related crashes contribute to a significant percentage of vehicle crashes in the work zones, which often result in injuries and fatalities. To mitigate the risk of truck-related crashes and develop effective safety countermeasures, a study on truckrelated crashes between 2000 and 2008 in Kansas highway work zones was conducted. Results of the study indicated that about half of truck drivers were at fault and were responsible for the fatal crashes in the work zones; straight following was the maneuver most truck drivers took before the crash happened; the rear-end crash was the dominant type for fatal, injury and property damage only crashes; and more than half of the fatal crashes occurred on straight and level highway work zones. Based on the study results, safety countermeasures that focus on mitigating the severity of truck-related crashes in the work zones were recommended in terms of work zone traffic control and public education.

The camera-based system has great potential to reduce transit bus side crashes. This paper evaluated the effectiveness of sideview video systems to reduce transit bus side crashes through measuring the reduction of blind zones, and analyzing the results of controlled driving tests and driver surveys using sideview video systems. The result from measurements of blind zone reduction showed that the sideview video systems with a regular angle lens can reduce about 64 percent of the blind zones of a flat mirror system. It can reduce about 43 percent of blind zones of a common combined flat and convex mirror system. The result of the controlled driving test from 28 bus drivers was positive on distance/depth perception and lane change maneuvers using sideview video systems. The driver survey results also confirmed that bus drivers participating in the study valued the benefits of sideview video systems.

Generally speaking, traffic headway comprises distance headway and time headway, which varies according to velocity and acceleration. Distance headway is a part of the traffic follow model as an expression of the stimulus-response factor. A more responsive driver accelerates and decelerates more frequently in response to the vehicle in front, thereby reducing the capacity of the traffic lane. This study attempts to calculate the distance headway in both the Macro Traffic Model and the Micro Traffic Model, and thus determine a steady state for the distance headway. The research results show that the Macro Traffic Model reaches Steady State at 20-23 seconds and the Micro Traffic Model reaches Steady State at 19-23 seconds. This research can be applied to traffic planning, calculation of crossroad traffic saturation rates, or in traffic simulation applications.

Portable changeable message signs (PCMSs) have been employed in highway work zones for decades. Results of previous research indicated that the traditional textbased PCMSs had several limitations. The advanced sign technology has now allowed the use of graphics on PCMSs, and many researchers have studied drivers' responses to graphics on PCMSs using driving simulators. This study employed driver surveys in the real-world traffic conditions to determine drivers' acceptance of using graphics on PCMSs in highway work zones. The results of driver surveys revealed that more than 87% of drivers correctly understood the work zone and flagger graphics, and over 72% of drivers believed the graphics drew their attention more to the traffic conditions. The results also showed that the majority of drivers preferred to see graphics displayed on PCMSs. This study provided valuable knowledge to government agencies and the transportation industry on how to regulate and use graphics on PCMSs in highway work zones.

The extreme event of natural disaster has had a serious significant impact on transportation infrastructure in recent years. The management financial resources are to have some criteria to show the current condition of infrastructure based on the results from inspection databases. Highway systems are very important to transportation infrastructure, and the highway system in Taiwan is vulnerable to earthquake and typhoon. Vulnerability of a transportation infrastructure system is the susceptibility to incidents that can result in a considerable reduction in transportation network serviceability. Because the major rainfall of Typhoon MORAKOT was focused in mountainous area, most of highway system destroyed was in this mountainous area as well. For example, more than 600 kilometers of highway length and 196 bridges failed or were closed as a result of Typhoon MORAKOT. In addition, the main causes of infrastructure damage were heavy and long periods of precipitation, floods, and upstream watershed debris-flow. In this paper, according to the Typhoon MORAKOT experience learning, we described the impact and assessment of its region of influence in terms of their susceptibility to and the consequences of typhoon occurrences. In addition, a lesson is learned from this study regarding the key issues arising after Typhoon MORAKOT.

In countries with high population density, evacuating large amount of people in a short time post-disaster is a critical challenge for emergency response agencies. This paper analyzes the reliability of highway evacuation network post earthquake disaster. The capacity of road segment after disasters is modeled as discrete probability function. A modified stochastic flow algorithm based on k-shortest path algorithm is proposed to calculate the possibility of transporting given number of people in pre-defined time window on potentially damaged highway network. Northeast Sichuan is used as case study site and real world data is collected to develop multiple scenarios in order to test the proposed methodology. The results show that the reliability of evacuation network is highly sensitive to the tightness of evacuation time window and the damage probability of critical road segment. The proposed methodology illustrates prominent potential of application in regional emergency planning and risk assessment.

The most important thing facing all levels of government after earthquake is to do everything possible to rescue injured people and evacuate those who are in the dangerous area to the safe places as soon as possible. What kinds of shelters are selected to be appropriate as earthquake shelters? This is an issue emergency management agencies have to deal with. For this reason it is necessary to set an evaluation model for earthquake emergency shelter (EES) so as to provide ground for decision making in the selection of earthquake emergency shelters. The objective of this study focuses on establishing a comprehensive evaluation model for the selection of earthquake emergency shelters. A total of three evaluation indicators are picked up: capacity of shelter, quality of facility, and accessibility. The definitions and quantitative calculation procedure of these indicators are elaborated. The weight of each indicator is estimated based on Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). A case study is also conducted to substantiate the validity and usefulness of the model. The result of this study can provide technical support in the selection of shelters for earthquake.

The year 2011 saw a number of high profile incidents involving railways in China. While every railway is unique, there are some universal concepts in modern safety management. This paper aims to share some of the basic concepts involved in the development of a modern railway throughout its life cycle. The key concepts are: safety management as sound investment, top down approach, safety is everybody's responsibility, risk-based allocation of safety resources, continuous improvement, no heroics and team from others.

Bases on the analyses of different factors contributing to tunnel collapse, this paper established a tunnel collapse risk evaluation model utilizing variable weight grey clustering method. To account for the significant variation of dimensions of each variable in the tunnel collapse model, empirical coefficients are introduced to modify each variable. The analysis shows that the updated variable weight grey clustering method is suitable for tunnel collapse risk evaluation in different locations, and is a usable tool to estimate risk level of tunnel construction.

This paper chooses the section between the stations of Majiapu Donglu and Yongdingmenwai Dajie on Beijing subway line 14 as the object, adopting a method of numerical simulation to analyze the function of grouting reinforcement in control of deformation of the earth surface while a shield tunnel crosses below the Beijing-Tianjin intercity high speed railway. A 3D numerical model is made to simulate the construction process of a shield tunnel crossing below a high speed railway with a top speed of 350km/h and the requirement of a differential settlement of less than 5mm between the two rails. The calculation result indicates that grouting reinforcement to the stratum of a certain extension of the crossing section can effectively control the settlement of the existing railway caused by shield tunneling so as to ensure safety operation of the railway. And the behind-segment grouting parameters and soil compartment pressure in the shield structure gained in the study can be instructional for further design and construction of tunnels.

The Snohomish River Bridge is an 1800 foot (one foot equals to approximately 0.3048 meter) long 40 foot wide curved steel plate girder bridge. The bridge has nine piers, including two end piers and seven intermediate piers. Three piers are located in the river and four are located in the flood plain.

Tunneling in weak rock mass with high water content may cause large ground movements and cracks, which may cause heavy damage to adjacent buildings and overlying facilities. During the construction of Beigang Tunnel, a railway tunnel buried in highly fractured and completely weathered rock mass rich in groundwater, serious collapse occurred. Taking the Beigang Tunnel as a prototype, model tests were conducted to study the pattern and law of ground subsidence and cracks when tunneling in weak rock mass. It was found that (1) water flow, which induced soil erosion, took the main responsibility for the tunnel's collapse, (2) before the appearance of the cracks, the distribution of surface settlements at the transverse section can be well described by Peck's Normal Probability Curve, (3) collapse happened first at the top of the tunnel and then developed upwards to form an arch shaped bearing structure; (4) the two largest cracks on the ground surface occurred at the early stage of collapse and were located on the either side of the tunnel axis, and settlements and cracks on ground surface developed mainly in the region between the two largest cracks.

As a novel structure, the integrated building-bridge station has appeared in the high speed railway construction of China, which is of great significant to ensure the seismic safety of the new structure in an earthquake. Meanwhile, the isolation technique which is an important passive control strategy has also been widely used in both buildings and bridges. Based on these, an intensive study of the story isolation technique is carried out in this paper which is to investigate the isolation technique's feasibility and effect on the integrated building-bridge station. Firstly, given the special characteristics of structure and isolation devices which are usually installed on the connection positions between the building and bridge, the numerical model is established considering the dynamic coupling effect. As earthquake ground motion is practically a random process, an accurate and efficient stochastic expression is derived based on the pseudo-excitation method and complex mode technique. Then a rational and effective optimization strategy is proposed to achieve the appropriate setting of the isolation devices. Finally, a numerical example is given to investigate the story isolation technique's application in the integrated building-bridge station by utilizing the stochastic analysis method and optimization strategy proposed in this paper.

Network arches have a tensile and a compressive flange with a web consisting of crossing hangers. Some of the hangers cross each other twice. The network can be seen as a very light, simply supported beam. There is little bending. There is a lot of tension in tie and hangers. The arches are well supported by hangers and wind bracing. Thus the buckling strength of the arch is high as long as few hangers relax. That is easiest to prevent when a concrete tie gives extra weight in the tie. The optimal shape of network arches is discussed. In two lane and two track network arches the biggest bending in the tie is usually the transverse bending half way between the arches. The optimal shape of network arches is discussed at length. The axial force between the ends of the arches is best taken by prestressing cables.

The devastating Wenchuan earthquake caused substantial flexural failure to Huilan flyover, located in Mianzhu of Sichuan, China. Based on the investigation of bridge damage, three-dimensional mathematical models suitable for eigenvalue analysis and non-linear time-history dynamic analysis are presented. In nonlinear time-history analysis, elasto-plastic mathematical model, effect of pounding and effect of slippage of bearing are studied by sensitivity analysis. Finally, the causations of seismic failure are concluded. Huilan flyover is located at Huilan Avenue in Mianzhu city and crosses several railway tracks. Four circular concrete ramps flank on both ends of main flyover structures. During the devastating Wenchuan earthquake, significant plastic failure occurred. After the earthquake, qualitative analysis is given by many researchers based on field reconnaissance (Liu 2009, Sun 2009). The radii of these curved ramps are uniformly small, which are quite vulnerable in earthquake, so it seems that more researches about curved bridge with small radius are necessary for design work in the future. Qualitative and quantitative analysis subject to those curved ramps are carried out in this article; finally, the causations of seismic failure are concluded.

With China's nationwide development of urban rail transit, several dual purpose road-rail major bridges have been or are being built in metropolitan areas and many more are yet to come. Most of these major bridges will be cable-stayed long-span structures with orthotropic steel deck. However, it has been lack of well recognized criteria and code specifications to fully accommodate their design process. Furthermore, fatigue considerations have not been clearly addressed in many cases because of the complexity to determine both fatigue load and resistance. Taking one such bridge currently under construction as an example, this paper proposes a practical fatigue design approach for dual purpose cable-stayed steel bridges by combining results from fatigue load definition, fatigue detail categorization, global and local structural analysis, fatigue strength determination, and its comparison to European standards.

Almost all underground structures suffer from water leakage problems. Traditional methods using injection for waterproofing in underground metro tunnels can only reduce large water leakages; they are not effective in preventing water from seeping into the tunnel. In addition, traditional injection methods cannot prevent reinforcing steel corrosion in concrete structures. The reinforcing steel can expand by twice its original volume after reacting with water and oxygen in producing ferric hydroxide. This phenomenon causes deterioration and spalling of concrete cover around the reinforcing steel. If this problem is not attended to, the longer-term structural integrity of the tunnel will be impaired. An innovative solution making use of the electro-osmosis theory has been devised and implemented in London Underground and the MTR in Hong Kong. It is an effective way of keeping underground structures dry, and at the same time, protecting the structural integrity of reinforced concrete. This paper discusses how the electro-osmosis theory can be applied to these structures and examples demonstrating how the technology can be applied in real situations.

In this article, the bearing capacity of double CFST (concrete filled steel tube) members is analyzed and simulated tested, aim at SFST member sections which is composed by coating steel tube covered outside conventional CFST with the stress state that inner CFST have initial stress, this article puts forward the ultimate bearing capacity calculation formula. It has a positive reference value for double CFST arch ring reinforcement design of this kind.

Dillon Road Grade Separation Bridge is just 2.2 miles away from the San Andreas Fault. San Andreas is the most famous fault in the world. It is a continental fault between North American Tectonic Plate and the Pacific Tectonic Plate. Its notoriety comes partly from the disastrous 1906 San Francisco earthquake, but rather more importantly because it passes through California. Dillon Road Grade Separation Bridge is in the City of Coachella. It carries Dillon Road over State Route 111 and Union Pacific Rail Road. This paper presents the seismic design of Dillon Road Grade Separation Bridge and discusses the design philosophy, criteria and approach for bridge at high seismic intensity area. The author shares his hand-on experiences on seismic design. It includes know-how on designing an effective seismic resistance system to reduce the displacement demand. Hence, the construction cost is reduced and the bridge's seismic safety is improved.

Located in the center of Chongqing City, both Dongshuimen Yangtze River Bridge and Qiansimen Jianling River Bridge are cable-stayed bridges and are designed to allow for dual highway and rail traffic. To better meet the bridges' stiffness requirements, a comparison study is carried out between resin composite sleeper and ballasted track in their structural characteristics as well as their performance on construction, maintenance, operation, cost effectiveness and environmental impact. Analytical results show that resin composite sleeper functions properly when applied to these bridges. This study provides valuable references to design of long-span rail bridges, especially when reduction of superimposed dead load becomes desirable.

Based on the comprehensive treatment project of Dagu Drainage River, this paper proposes the reutilization of river sludge in roadbed filling to realize their recycling and harmless treatment and presents the first domestic classification standard of sludge utilization in accordance with relative state road and environment standards. The author carried out indoor tests and field construction tests of material performance after mixing sludge with lime, powder of building debris and lime slag respectively. These tests showed that all performance indexes of the sludge mixings meet the requirement of road specification, the limits of relative state standards and test requirements for heavy metals content and Extraction toxicity (ET).

CRTSII ballastless slab track used in high-speed railway was originated from B(o)gle slab track system of Germany. Cement emulsified asphalt mortar (CEAM) layer, as one of the three core technologies of CRTS ballastless slab track, has been playing a significantly important role in the track structure. Combined with engineering practice of CEAM layer used in the ballastless slab track for the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway and the Shanghai-Hangzhou high-speed railway, the effects of raw materials, mix proportion design and key processes, such as wetting, edge banding, grouting and curing on construction quality were analyzed in this paper. Furthermore, the key technologies of construction quality control were mainly expounded in different construction stages, and the quality control measures were also proposed, correspondingly.

Pavement performance data is a very common example of multilevel data. While analyzing this type of data using conventional regression techniques, the normality assumptions with random errors and constant variance were often violated. Because of its hierarchical data structure, multilevel data are often analyzed using Linear Mixed-Effects (LME) models. The exploratory analysis, statistical modeling, and the examination of model-fit of LME models are more complicated than those of standard multiple regressions. A systematic modeling approach using visual-graphical techniques and LME models was proposed and demonstrated using the original AASHO road test rigid pavement data. The proposed LME modeling process including selecting a preliminary mean structure, selecting a random structure, selecting a residual covariance structure, model reduction, and examining the model fit will be further discussed in this paper.

Epoxy asphalt mixture (EAM) is a thermosetting material, and its strength develop law depends not only on temperature, but also on curing time, while the strengths of most other asphalt mixtures are only a function of temperature. This complication in the strength developing procedure of EAM has brought many difficulties to its construction. To find a better way to approach the construction of EAM, the strength developing procedure of EAM was studied. Firstly, the viscosities of epoxy asphalt binder (EAB) in different temperatures were tested to investigate the viscosity developing law of EAB. Secondly, a thermokinetic analysis was conducted based on the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) test to establish a curing model of EAB. Thirdly, the performance of EAM under different curing times and at different temperatures is studied to investigate the strength developing law of EAM. The test results indicated that the optimum viscosity range for EAM construction is from 1000mPa⋅s to 3000mPa⋅s, and the optimum laboratorial curing condition is 5 hours at 130°C. Finally, a curing model of EAB was established and verified on the basis of the test results.

The cracking of asphalt pavement caused by temperature changes is one of the main problems in cold highlands where climate characteristics include a low average temperature and a large variation in temperature. Temperature contraction cracking has a greater relation to the flexural strength of asphalt mixture. The effects of the temperature, nominal maximum size of aggregate and the asphalt-aggregate ratio on flexural strength are investigated in the laboratory combining with the climate features of cold areas. The results show that there are two strategic points, - 10°C and 15°C in the curve of the flexural tensile strength under the five kinds of temperatures. The flexural tensile strength of AC-13 is greater than that of AC-16 at lower temperatures. The asphalt-aggregate ratio is given for the maximum flexural strength of 6.0%-7.0%.The extent of influence on flexural strength is analyzed by variance analysis, revealing that temperature and asphalt-aggregate ratio have a highly significant influence on flexural strength of asphalt mixture. Regression analysis is conducted for the results using a binary quadratic model. The yield for temperature and asphalt-aggregate ratio can be described well by the model.

Over the past 20 years, China's transportation infrastructure has developed rapidly. To date, more than 40,000 kilometers expressway have been built and opened to traffic, ranking second in the world. In the meantime, short service life and early failure of the highway pavement have become one of major concerns. This may be contributed by the poorly designed semi-rigid pavement structure and heavily overloaded vehicles. In more recent years, some long-life pavement structures have been designed and constructed. This paper discusses the design and construction of an expressway long-life flexible pavement structure in China. The project involved is a new 26.78 kilometer, Da'an to Jiliao Section in Henan Province, of the Erlianhaote to Guangzhou Expressway. The pavement had been designed as a semi-rigid structure which was later replaced by the new long-life flexible pavement structure in order to introduce this pavement technology as a cost-effective alternative to current semi-rigid or rigid pavement technology in China. Technical services provided through integrated technology transfer activities have presented a model for future expressway projects an option, and made the long-life flexible pavement structure the leading edge of national practice.

The resilient modulus is an essential engineering property for determining the stress-strain characteristics of pavement structures subjected to traffic loadings. Due to the complexity, labor intensiveness, and time consuming in conducting resilient modulus measurements in laboratory, it is necessary to establish a rational approach for estimating the resilient modulus of subgrade materials after compaction. This paper presents an extensive study to estimate the resilient modulus from basic soil properties for two common types of granular subgrade soil in Florida: fine sand (A-3 soil), and silty/clayey sand (A-2-4 soil). Laboratory triaxial tests were conducted to measure the resilient modulus values of constructed granular subgrades at different conditions. Correlation models were developed for different types of soil from experimental results. The estimated resilient modulus values from the correlation models were generally within a range of +/- 20% of the measured resilient modulus values from laboratory triaxial tests. This approach for estimating the resilient modulus of subgrades could be utilized in the mechanistic-empirical pavement design guide to better evaluate the resilient modulus of constructed subgrade materials.

In highway construction, loose roadbed and subgrade soils must be compacted to improve their strength characteristics for the long-term pavement performance. Groundwater base clearance, which is defined as the clearance between the groundwater level and pavement base layer within a pavement system, becomes an important factor during the pavement construction. When an adequate groundwater base clearance is not provided, difficulties in constructing the pavement sublayers are often encountered. This paper presents an experimental study of the constructability of compacting pavement sublayer under various levels of groundwater base clearance. A full-scale test-pit program and a field experimental program were conducted to evaluate the constructability of pavement compaction in Florida. Both static and dynamic compaction methods were evaluated. The experimental results indicated that constructability of the granular pavement sublayer was not a problem where the groundwater base clearance was at least about 2 - 3 feet (0.60 - 0.91 m). To ensure constructability, a minimum of 3-foot (0.91 m) groundwater base clearance would be suggested for the pavement design and construction.

Asphalt binder is one of the key factors that influence the engineering properties of hot mix asphalt (HMA) concrete. Many research studies suggest that the Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene (SBS) polymer is a promising modifier to improve the asphalt binder, and hence benefit the HMA viscoelastic properties. The specific beneficial characteristics and appropriate polymer concentration need to be evaluated. This paper presents an experimental program based on the fracture mechanics framework to evaluate the effect of SBS polymer-modified binder concentration on engineering properties of HMA concrete mixtures. Two standard Superpave control mixes with the base asphalt (PG 67-22) which is commonly used in Florida were selected. Each control mix design was modified to three SBS polymer content levels (3.0%, 4.5%, and 6.0%). Three types of Indirect Diametral Tension (IDT) test, i.e., the resilient modulus test, the creep compliance test, and the tensile strength test, were performed to determine the fracture mechanics properties of polymer-modified asphalt (PMA) specimens at three temperature levels: -10, 5, and 25° C (14, 41, and 77° F). The test results indicated that the SBS polymer-modified asphalt binder improved the fracture mechanics behavior of asphalt mixtures comprehensively. Excessive amount of polymer content might improve the stiffness, creep, and failure strain properties at low temperatures; however, its effect on the PMA resilient modulus at high temperatures is not always favorable.

This paper presents the findings on pavement noise on various types of pavements in North Carolina (NC) by using an On-Board Sound Intensity (OBSI) method. As a competitive alternative for noise mitigation, quieter pavement may provide advantages that noise barriers do not have, or to where sound barriers are not suited. The first step in developing quieter pavement is identifying the noise levels of different types of highway pavements. To reach the ultimate goals of quieter pavement development, this research has focused on the most imperative task, i.e., to measure the noise levels of different types of pavements. Pavement noise levels of 61 highway sites including 153 test sections around 30 counties for nine types of pavements across North Carolina have been investigated. Quiet pavement(s) has been identified.

To minimize the effects of traffic congestions, a method with the speedy construction and lower user impact cost is needed. This paper introduces a relatively new pavement construction method lately developed in United States. The method is called Precast Prestressed Concrete Pavement (PPCP.) PPCP sustains a life-cycle pavement construction project. The state-of-the-art of the PPCP method will be reviewed and compared. Their design concepts, field installation procedures, merits, pitfalls will be discussed. With all the comparative advantages and disadvantages, PPCP is comparatively sustainable. It is inevitable that PPCP will be a vital option for roadway construction in the near future.

A new pile, vibro compaction gravel-concrete composite pile (referred to as GCP) is developed. The principle, construction method, quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) of gravel-concrete composite pile are briefly introduced. Simple calculation models of gravel-concrete composite pile embedded in soft soils are built by FLAC^3D and LPILE software, and models of conventional concrete pile and gravel pile with the same volumes are also built for comparative analysis. The performances on vertical compressive load, uplift load, and lateral load capacities are comparatively analyzed and discussed. Then the parameter study on the proportion of gravel materials in the whole gravel-concrete composite pile is carried out. The results show that the gravel-concrete composite pile is a cost-effective pile, which can improve bearing capacity effectively.

In this paper, a high steep hill with two side slopes near National Road 213 is used as a prototype. A full process from initial deformation to sliding of the slope during ground shaking is simulated by a new discrete element method CDEM. First, we compare simulation results with those from a shaking table test, verifying that our simulation is reliable. Then seismic responses of the slope are re-analyzed by a new time-frequency analysis method HHT. The results: before the sliding of slope occurs, amplifications of the acceleration in the slope are the most prominent while both instantaneous frequency of the acceleration in the slope wash-sliding bed structural plane and natural frequency of the slope wash are close to each other. Meanwhile, the instantaneous frequencies of the acceleration in the slope wash are in a limited range, but those reduce suddenly after the sliding of slope wash occurs. The starting time of sliding and the arrival time of peak value of the instantaneous energy are synchronous, or the former lags behind the latter slightly. With respect to input seismic wave, regardless of whether it occurs on the steep slope, on the gentle slope, or inside the slope, the peak value of instantaneous energy amplifies as the elevation increases. Generally speaking, amplification of the peak value of instantaneous energy in a vertical direction > that of instantaneous energy in a horizontal direction, and amplification of the peak value of instantaneous energy on a steep slope > that on a gentle slope > that inside the slope.

This paper presents both experimental and numerical investigations on the influence of soil dilatancy on the behaviour of a shallow anchor plate in sand. A series of scaled model tests are performed to obtain the soil displacement field around an uplifting anchor using an image processing technique. The failure plane is identified by locating the points with maximum shear strain values deduced from the displacement field. The finite element package, Plaxis, is used to perform numerical analyses. The results show that the numerical analyses can simulate the experimental results by varying the angle of dilatancy during shearing. Two distinctively different failure modes are observed in loose and dense sand conditions. A significant compaction is experienced in loose sand to form a bell shaped compaction zone above the anchor plate. In dense sand two shear bands extend outward to the ground surface forming an angle of approximately the dilatancy angle of soil with the vertical.

Lateral loaded pile is a type of retaining structure widely used for stabilizing slope. Although various static design methods for lateral loaded pile are recommended in design codes, few seismic design methods for the pile were developed in the past. In this paper, the deformation and load acted on the lateral loaded piles with 3 degrees of tilt, caused by the ground shaking from the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, are analysed by using software ABAQUS. To truly obtain the deformation and load of the pile, back-analysis and trial and error approaches are taken and measured pile displacements are used as control criteria. By using the back-analysis, we get the bending moment and shear force of the piles and earth pressure distribution on the piles. When compared with the values recommended from Chinese code, our results show that a seismic coefficient of 0.4 can work very well for evaluating seismic response of the piles subjected to the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. On this basis, we re-analyze the seismic response of the lateral loaded piles when subjected to PGA=0.1g (7 degrees), 0.3g (8 degrees) and 0.4g (9 degrees). Results show that a seismic coefficient of 0.3 is suitable for 7 degree, 0.35 for 8 degree, 0.4 for equal to and greater than 9 degree areas. In the paper, some impacted factors for lateral loaded pile design are also studed. Finally, a seismic design method for lateral loaded pile subjected to strong shaking is proposed.

To explore the effect of strike-slip fault rupture propagation through soft soil deposit on embankment deformation, we performed dynamic response analyses by using the software ABAQUS. In the first step of our analysis, we discuss the effect of strike-slip fault rupture direction and velocity on the embankment deformation. The reason behind this is that in most studies fault rupture direction is assumed to be unilateral and its velocity is assumed to be slow, with linear changes occurring with time. As a result, in the study we assume that the fault rupture can unilateral or bilateral, and that the fault rupture velocity changes with time. Results from the analyses show that the ground displacement is greater than the displacement on the top of the embankment regardless of the fault rupture direction and velocity; bilateral fault rupture produces greater embankment displacement than the unilateral fault rupture and an approximately symmetrical embankment deformation shape with respect to the fault location. If the increments of the fault rupture velocity change with the increase of time, the embankment deformation is different. For example, if the increment of the fault rupture velocity reduces with time, the situation shows that the embankment deformation is smaller than if the increments of the fault rupture velocity increase with time. From the study, we also obtained the worst-case fault rupture direction and velocity, which will be of assistance to engineers' design.

Research on assessment method of highway slope stability becomes more of a concern. The high large steeply inclined and accumulation slope stability in southeast region of Chongqing located in mountain area in Southwest China, where the slope is high and large. The toe of slope is steeply inclined and the slope is mainly composed of loose piles with characteristics of large system, uncertainty and complexity. On the basis of mechanism analysis on this kind of slope, we established a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation mathematic model and ascertained method of some relevant method parameters by the application of mathematic theory. Taking the rocky slope of highway as an example, we provided stability assessment of some sections in 319 national roads in Xiushan County in Chongqing city. This slope is typical located in southeast region of Chongqing, which has special meaning to analyze and evaluate stability on this kind of slope.

This study was conducted to investigate the dynamic response of a non-ballasted track-subgrade system under the high-speed train moving loads. On the assumption that the stress distribution is uniform under the bottom of the track plate, a complete finite element (FE) model was established for the roadbed-subgrade system with the FE analysis computer software ABAQUS. Using the FE model, numerical analyses were performed with focus on the variations of the system's vibration displacement, velocity, and acceleration under loading of a moving high-speed train. The dynamic responses under different moving speeds were analyzed and compared for a sinusoidal loading with a constant amplitude. The analysis results indicate that the system's dynamic responses increase nonlinearly as the moving speed increases with similar pattern. The findings of this study are useful to the design and construction of high-speed rail roadbeds.